


Moving Above Water

by Cookies_and_Chaos



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:49:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28733733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookies_and_Chaos/pseuds/Cookies_and_Chaos
Summary: Time for two old rivals to swallow their pride. Set the day after the LaRusso household fight in "December 19". Written for the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge 2020, Day 12, "Twelve Lonely Islands".
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19
Collections: 12 Days of Christmas Challenge 2020





	Moving Above Water

"What sort of pansy-ass meditation island is that, LaRusso?"

So much for peaceful contemplation on his own. Daniel opened his eyes and immediately wondered how many consecutive days this year Johnny Lawrence had gone without sporting a black eye. "You look like crap."

"Yeah, well, rough night." Johnny took a step closer and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Seriously, what the fuck is that?"

"It used to just be decorative, I had bonsais on it," Daniel said.

"There's a surprise, fucking bonsais..." Johnny muttered, kicking at the stones by the side of the pond.

"Then one day, I had an idea for helping Sam and Robby train..." Just the mentioned of Robby felt like a dull thud in Daniel's gut and from the look on Johnny's face, he felt it too.

"Sounds stupid but, you know, if it worked," Johnny said. "You did good by him. Not just the karate, I mean."

"I don't know about that, maybe if I'd done something differently this wouldn't have happened." Daniel sighed.

"Bullshit," Johnny said, the bite to the words surprising Daniel, "I mean, sure, maybe something different would have happened but Robby... that's not on you. Never was."

Daniel wasn't sure that he believed him but it was something in and of itself to hear Johnny saying it. Now that he thought on it, beneath the mocking — which was basically Johnny's default setting anyway — there wasn't any of the usual bite. The usual antagonism.

"Why are you here, Johnny?"

"You saved my ass last night, figured I owed you a real thanks, you know." Johnny shrugged.

Daniel waited for a moment, then raised an eyebrow. When Johnny rolled his eyes, Daniel's grin grew even broader.

"Alright, alright. Thanks, LaRusso."

"You're welcome. Kreese..." Daniel stood up slowly and carefully so as not to tip the floating board. "Kreese has gone too far now. I mean, I didn't like what you did with Cobra Kai to begin with but I gotta admit, you were starting to take them on the right path towards the end there."

"That's the other reason I'm here..." Johnny screwed up his face as Daniel moved his feet to keep a better balance on the board. "What the hell sort of training do you do on that anyway?"

"The other reason you're here?" Daniel prompted.

"Oh, right..." Johnny pulled another face and then refocused. "The kids, they teamed up last night and stood up to Cobra Kai."

"Yeah. Put us to shame a bit there, right?" Daniel said, cringing a little as he thought of how he and Johnny had practically been dragged kicking and screaming into a truce while a bunch of teenagers had made steps to resolve their problems without the need for such desperate measures.

"So what if we lead by example now?" Johnny asked. "You're right. Kreese has gone too far. The shit he's getting those kids doing... He nearly fucking killed me last night. How long until Robby or Tory or one of the others does the same? On purpose this time?"

Daniel thought of Tory's single-minded focus on his daughter and shuddered. The board wobbled beneath his feet and he took a deep breath to refind his balance.

"You want to team up again? That didn't go so well last time," Daniel pointed out.

"There's more at stake this time," Johnny said, "and sure, I take the piss outta your karate but that's just... I know you know your shit. Maybe you've got something to teach my kids and maybe I got something to teach yours?"

Daniel nodded slowly. The same thought had occurred to him during the night when he had finally given up on the idea of sleep, that maybe the karate Johnny taught complimented his and that by learning both, their students would be all the better off for it.

"Plus..." Johnny looked around. "We're training in the park at the moment and this place is pretty sweet. Even if you do have," — Johnny gestured at the island — "weird floating training pads and shit."

Daniel chuckled. "You come over here, onto my weird, pansy-ass, floating meditation island and let me show you why it's important, and you've got a deal. Miyagi-Do and Eagle...Fang will work together."

"Can't we skip that part and just get on with the karate?" Johnny asked.

"To be able to train on this, you have to be in balance with yourself and your training partner. If we're going to work together, we need to show the kids that we _can_ work together. Right now, I don't even know if we can and we need to fix that," Daniel said.

"Sounds like a buncha mumbo jumbo just to get me onto your stupid island," Johnny grumbled but he carefully made his way into the water all the same. Daniel lowered himself down into the water onto the opposite side. Johnny reached the island and put his hands on it, lifted his head and nodded.

"Alright, let's do this."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to every single person who contributed to 12 Days of Christmas and to everyone who read, commented and sent kudos to people writing. Hopefully, see you all again next year :)


End file.
